Handling Multiple Dropshippers

[raiinstorm]

Hi,
Okay I'm new to ZenCart and to the forums. I really hope this is an okay place to post this question, but I'm at a loss as to where I COULD ask it.

I'm just starting my online store and every dropshipper I find has such a very basic list of the products I'm looking for. 3-10 products.. some with 20-30
But I'd like to set up a store with at least 100+ products.

How do you guys handle multiple dropshippers? Do you tell your customers to expect multiple packages?

Is there a way to handle this? Maybe i"m better off going to a normal wholesale and then sending all products to a company that will then dropship them for me?

Any suggestions here?

I haven't come up with any answers to my confusion on the net yet. Google isn't producing the results I want.

Hope this is allowed. If not, delete it and let me know.

Oh and if you can, suggest any sites where I could find out more about such services.

Thanks much

~Rain

[opensaysmesource]

If you have a large number of suppliers with less then 30 products or so the odds that you will have people order from more then one program does go up.

This is not really a cart question but a question of how you want to deal with the issue.

Most customers just want their items. They will pay the single shipping cost...so if they show up in more then one box they might not have much of an issue. You will need to make sure you have a fee in the shipping or your prices high enough to capture the additional cost you will need to pay for the multiple shipping.

You can add something to the policy pages which say that products are not always shipping in the same box for multi-product orders. You can tell people you have "different inventory centers" and the products are shipping from the closest center where the product is available. ....there are several things you can do...but as long as you make money and the customer gets there orders that is all that matters. You wont make much if you ship all orders to a central hub who then repacks and then ships. You might find it easier to let the products come directly...then...if you get one order where there is a large number of products from different suppliers you can have them all ship to you and then you rebox them and send them to the client. However, this wont make the delivery as fast and you wont really reduce the shipping cost...but the client does get all products in the same box if you think that is important.

[Tot 2 Teen]

But how would you create the shipping module for multiple dropshippers?